(RightWing.org) – One question Americans need to ask themselves is why the Democrats seem so intent on doing everything in their power to prevent former President Donald Trump from seeking to reclaim his position in 2024. Case in point, the now-minority party in the United States House of Representatives is asking for an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) “failure” to perform “mandatory” audits of an ex-POTUS’s tax returns. However, there are a few holes in their argument for such a course of action.
The Ask
In a January 19 letter, a group of congressional Democrats wrote the Comptroller General of the United States, Gene Dorado of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking for an immediate investigation “into the circumstances surrounding the ‘failure'” of the IRS regarding Trump’s taxes. They referenced a December 20, 2022, report from the House Ways and Means Committee, which found “only one ‘mandatory’ audit” was started and “the program was otherwise dormant, at best.”
Words Matter
You may have noticed the quotation marks around the words “failure” and “mandatory” in the opening sections of this article; it’s because they are important. The Democrats are alleging the IRS did not execute its duties as prescribed under the United States Code, and this is where gaps large enough to fly Air Force One through start to appear.
As embarrassing as it might be for people who make their livelihood as lawmakers, it almost seems as if they completely missed the episode of ABC’s Schoolhouse Rock titled “I’m Just a Bill.” To recap, Bill explained he wasn’t yet a law since that would require passage by BOTH houses of Congress and a signature from the sitting president.
On December 22, with the Democrat-majority dead but not yet buried, five RINOs from the House joined in with the Left in passing the “Presidential Tax Filings and Audit Transparency Act of 2022.” Not only did the measure not get taken up by the Senate, but since it was the final days of the 117th session, it was “cleared from the books” when the 118th Congress took over, according to the website GovTrack.us.
Since 1977, it has been the policy of the IRS to audit the sitting president on a yearly basis, but again what words mean is very important here. No law on the books mandates the agency undertake any such investigation of a POTUS’s tax returns, especially ones as complicated as Trump’s.
The strange thing in this whole matter is the wording of the letter to the Comptroller General seems to hint that the signatories may have a clue they really have no legal leg on which to stand. They have phrased their request in a way to make it look as if they’re not engaged in another witchhunt of President Trump, but rather they are simply looking for a future way to make such audits easier.
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